Marley Moose is dedicating her third summer to reforesting northern Manitoba, joining a team committed to aiding the natural recovery of woodlands ravaged by wildfires. However, their mission faces new obstacles following the termination of a government initiative targeting the planting of two billion trees by 2030.
“Everywhere around me is burnt, but it’s where life used to be, so we’re back here giving life back to these dead areas,” said Moose, 22, as she skillfully planted tiny jack pine and black spruce trees in the scorched earth. The forest in Manitoba’s Interlake region, about 300 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg, was previously devastated by a jack pine budworm infestation in 2016 and then further ravaged by wildfire in the Devils Lake area in 2021.
With the cancellation of the federal two billion trees program, reforestation efforts like the one led by Nekoté LP, an Indigenous-owned corporation representing seven Swampy Cree First Nations in northern and central Manitoba, are now at risk. According to the Canadian Tree Nursery Association (CTNA), Canada is losing trees at an alarming rate due to deforestation for development, lumber, paper, and the impact of pests like the mountain pine beetle. Between 2023 and 2025, nearly a tenth of Canada’s forests were destroyed by wildfires, requiring an estimated 7.3 billion seedlings to replace just 15% of the lost trees.
The CTNA had been spearheading the 2 Billion Trees Program, a federal initiative launched by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2019 election campaign, with a $3.2 billion budget over a decade. However, the current government, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, scrapped the program to redirect funds towards defense and infrastructure. This decision has left ongoing reforestation projects struggling to meet their targets, especially in the face of escalating wildfires.
As Canada faces the aftermath of three consecutive severe fire years and the challenge of managing carbon emissions from forest degradation, industry experts and conservationists are collaborating to devise alternative strategies following the cancellation of the 2 Billion Trees program. Farron Sharp, a project manager with Blue-Green Planet Project, is seeking new funding sources to sustain tree-planting efforts in Manitoba’s Devils Lake area, where the goal is to plant 20 million trees by 2030.
Tree-planting advocates like Sharp emphasize the importance of these initiatives as a counterbalance to environmental degradation caused by human activities such as fossil fuel consumption, unsustainable consumerism, and destructive logging practices. Despite the laborious nature of tree-planting, individuals like Marley Moose remain committed to restoring forests for the benefit of future generations, striving to create a legacy of rejuvenated landscapes where wildlife can thrive.